inside the glass house

Hats off to career diplomats
NEW YORK - Charlie Mahendran, a longtime career diplomat and a former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, is usually armed with an inexhaustible medley of political and personal anecdotes which he deploys to spice his conversations.

At a luncheon he hosted the other day at the Hilton Hotel in Colombo, he recollected a story from the mid-1970s when an all-too-ambitious junior diplomat aspiring to pole-vaulting heights -- perhaps the wrong sports metaphor -- was planting stories in local newspapers that he was tipped to succeed the late Shirley Amerasinghe, then Sri Lanka's ambassador to the United Nations.

The proposed appointment, according to Mahendran, was really the figment of the young diplomat's imagination. But the rumour was fast gaining currency in Colombo's political circles at that time.

Amerasinghe, whose diplomatic accomplishments were equally matched by his haughtiness, was outraged to hear that his prestigious job was to be taken over by a novice.

A veteran diplomat with a passion for classical literature, Amerasinghe reacted with a degree of outraged sarcasm. Told about the possible impending appointment, he retorted: "The only parallel in history is when the Roman emperor Caligula made his favourite horse a senator."Mahendran, who himself occupied the seat once adorned by Amerasinghe at Sri Lanka's Mission to the United Nations, breaks out in loud laughter as he recounts the story.

But he admits that Amerasinghe was one of the few non-career diplomats who left behind a legacy for successive Sri Lankan envoys at the UN.
Amerasinghe was the only Sri Lankan to be elected president of the General Assembly, the UN's highest policy making body, and he was also the primary architect of the Law of the Sea.

The relative merits of career and non-career diplomats were the point of discussion recently largely due to two reasons: the death of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, and the decision of the European Union (EU) to crack down on the LTTE.Kadirgamar's death was a huge blow to the diplomatic service which he nurtured and professionalised. Whether successive foreign ministers will destroy the edifice that Kadirgamar built is left to be seen. But there is very little hope that any future foreign minister will continue some of his ground-breaking traditions.

Heavy price
Kadirgamar's relentless campaign was primarily responsible for the dramatic turnaround by the EU. In its statement last month, the EU said it was actively considering "the formal listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation".

But it also decided that, with immediate effect, delegations from the LTTE will no longer be received in any of the EU Member States until further notice — triggering a travel ban on LTTE leaders.

But the question being asked in diplomatic circles is: would the EU have taken these drastic measures if Kadirgamar was still alive?
And were these measures prompted by his assassination? If so, Sri Lanka paid a heavy price in order to outlaw the LTTE in Europe?

Perhaps some of the credit should also go to Foreign Service, headed by H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, for the lobbying done both in Colombo and in European capitals.As Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative, Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam said the other day virtually every single European capital is now headed by a career diplomat. Perhaps this is a historic first for the Sri Lankan Foreign Service.

Although the Foreign Service does not necessarily have the best and the brightest -- and at the same time not all non-career officers should be treated as duds -- it has committed far less diplomatic blunders than non-career officers in its short history.

Meanwhile, the decision by the EU is expected to end an era of impunity by the LTTE, and the impatience of the world community with LTTE's violence and terrorism -- all this against the backdrop of the demilitarisation of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and negotiated solution in the Aceh province in Indonesia.

But as in all political and diplomatic games, winning is not as difficult as sustaining the hard-won victories. The LTTE has launched a massive campaign both in the US and Europe to rebuild its battered international image.

Escape valve
When the UN early this year was discussing the need to impose travel restrictions on rebel groups accused of recruiting child soldiers, there was an attempt to create an escape valve: the travel ban would exempt rebel leaders who are involved in peace negotiations.

Since the 25 members of the European Union have to establish their own guidelines, this loophole may well be pursued by the LTTE in trying to outsmart the government.

As a senior Sri Lankan diplomat explained last week: "We were able to get the EU at long last to slap some symbolic sanctions on the LTTE. But what is more significant in the EU statement is what is not written there -- i.e. that the EU has critically reviewed its appeasement approach so far by all the three players, (the government of Sri Lanka, the LTTE, and Norway) and decided that the approach should be carrot and stick, not carrots and more carrots."

A former US president once said: speak softly and carry a big stick. But unfortunately, the stick that the Norwegians have been carrying is a toothpick.

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